John McAfee Tells World How He Fooled Cops and Escaped Belize

It looks like the long and winding road of the John McAfee saga is going to continue for at least a little longer. McAfee posted a detailed blog post about how he was able to elude Belizean authorities and sneak out of the country. From the article: "'It's visually interesting and it is mostly a happy story — in line with most Christmas stories,' he wrote. The former software executive describes an operation that was heavy in advance planning and trickery. He says he planted a lookalike ('my double — a man I have known for over 30 years and who years ago legally changed his name to John McAfee') and had him picked up by authorities in the northern Belize-Mexico border, while he and a group of friends and reporters loaded up a truck and headed in the opposite direction, to a southern town called Punta Gorda. With the news that he'd been arrested broadcasting on a local news station, McAfee figured that checkpoint security would relax."

Comments

whoa

[someone1234]

He must have been planning his escape for years!

Re:whoa

[alexander_686]

I head do by nominate Keanu Reeves to play John in the made for TV film.

Would /. please spare us ??

[Taco Cowboy]

Dunno about you, but I'm really sick and tired of yet another episode of the ensuing saga McAfee, the publicity whore !

Please have some heart, Slashdot !!

Re:Would /. please spare us ??

[Bieeanda]

Please, yes. The man's a scummy asshat who hasn't been involved in the tech industry for years. It isn't like that ghastly business with Hans Reiser, where there was at least the excuse of handwringing over the fate of the file system he was developing.

Re:Would /. please spare us ??

[LordLucless]

I hate his software as much as the next Slashdot geek, and think he's nutty as a fruitcake, but he's hardly a publicity whore. Publicity whores don't vanish into south America for decades on end. Your comment reminds me of all the attacks on Julian Assange - it seems anyone who gets media attention for anything other than being a politician or a celebrity gets accused of publicity whoring.

Re:Would /. please spare us ??

[PolygamousRanchKid]

If you don't like the Lord of the McAfee franchise, you can:

1. Vote the story down in the Submissions queue.
2. Simply ignore the story and don't read it.
3. Submit something more interesting yourself.
4. Have your double — a man your have known for over 30 years and who years ago legally changed his name to Taco Cowboy read Slashdot for you.

Hey, if I don't like the stories that get posted, I remind myself that with Slashdot, I get what I pay for it . . . and it's worth every penny of it . . .

Re:Would /. please spare us ??

[ae1294]

Sometimes people with OCD have to read ALL of the Slashdot articles before they can move on to looking at their new batch of porn downloads. Nerd Rage is sometimes hard on

Re:Would /. please spare us ??

[flyneye]

Well, in Julians case, attention whoring seems to be saving his freedom and probably his life.
If it weren't for attention whores, there'd be no entertainment, no stage, no t.v., no radio and no girlies with daddy issues who wanna cuddle up to ol' fly.
Let's not make "attention whore" quite such an anathema.

Re:Would /. please spare us ??

[MagusSlurpy]

Head in his glove box is only circumstantial evidence. Did you see him put it in there?

Re:Would /. please spare us ??

[JWSmythe]

I would think the witnesses seeing him hose out the blood from his car, or the fact that he somehow misplaced the passenger seat, would be pretty good clues.

But when he lead them to the body, that was a dead giveaway.

Re:Would /. please spare us ??

[Anonymous Coward]

I would think the witnesses seeing him hose out the blood from his car

He was a long time sufferer of nose bleeds. Nothing remarkable about this at all.

or the fact that he somehow misplaced the passenger seat, would be pretty good clues.

Typical geek, always taking things apart and not always putting them back together. Maybe a bit absent minded too. Doesn't prove a thing.

But when he lead them to the body, that was a dead giveaway.

Clearly a latent psychic. Doesn't prove a thing.

Re:Would /. please spare us ??

[mabhatter654]

How is that file system? He has plenty of time for patching bugs now. Provided he write all the patches out on notebook paper... Cause computers are a bit hard to come by in the slammer.

Re:Would /. please spare us ??

[Provocateur]

And the new slashdot would send an investigative reporter to the Belize holding cell and hear out the double's story, and come out with a book called False Positive The Story of McAfee's Escape

Re:Would /. please spare us ??

[TheLink]

It's not so popular now due to vendor lock-in.

Re:Would /. please spare us ??

[turkeyfeathers]

And the new slashdot would send an investigative reporter to the Belize holding cell and hear out the double's story, and come out with a book called False Positive The Story of McAfee's Escape

Published by Packt, so naturally it would get a great front-page review on Slashdot. Win-win!

Re:Would /. please spare us ??

[Bigbutt]

You sure you're not confusing him with Peter Norton? I'd use the Norton Utilities to edit my Larn executable.

[John]

Re:Would /. please spare us ??

[Patch86]

What is a story about a famous software engineer getting accused of murder (sort of), going crazy and going on an international run from the police, doing on Slashdot? Is it either of interest to Nerds, or News?

Or do you just want pictures of Spiderman?

Re:Would /. please spare us ??

[ArhcAngel]

Geography Nazi...because being a grammar Nazi is just too mainstream!

Re:Would /. please spare us ??

[TheCarp]

> Can't tell if you're for real Anon

GP's 'Latent Psychic' crack wasn't a dead giveaway? wow, have you considered a job at the FBI or TSA?

> Compelling circumstantial evidence can also win cases

as can lies, misunderstandings, and judges who are out to get "those anarchist bastards" (as one judge was famously quoted as saying after an old and controversial case in my own city). Winning a case is not the same as proving anything, or settling the matter in everyones mind. You may be able to convict with less, but you wont convince everyone that its not a wrongful conviction with less.

On the other hand, leading the police directly to where you buried the body is, generally, a dead giveaway.

Re:Would /. please spare us ??

[19thNervousBreakdown]

Incorrect, the criteria is "beyond a reasonable doubt". Very, very little can be proven beyond a shadow of a doubt. For instance, it's not beyond a shadow of a doubt that he was framed, and then coerced into confessing. It's possible. Heck, it's happened. But I don't think it's reasonable to think that's what happened in this case.

Since he did plead guilty, I imagine that at least he was under the impression that there was sufficient evidence to find him guilty, and the most likely reason for that is that he did in fact commit the crime. Unless you've got an argument that's more convincing than a confession that involves producing the hidden body, I fail to see why we should have let him go.

Re:Would /. please spare us ??

[AK Marc]

As I understand it, the legal standard is "beyond the shadow of a doubt",

It's beyond "reasonable doubt" "shadow of a doubt" has no standing in law.

Re:Would /. please spare us ??

[AK Marc]

The parts we hate were written long after he sold out and moved on.

He sold out in 1996, or so as far as I can tell. Did you actually use virus scanners about that time, or are you just revisioning history? Norton was better then. McAfee AV was horrible on servers (where most used scanners then, before they were everywhere). It was a massive resource hog, and would prevent normal operation of the server. One of the reasons people put Linux boxes out in front of MS Exchange is that products like McAfee to scan user emails before delivery would simply kill the server. MS wouldn't support an Exchange server with AV on it because they were so bad. A separate server was a cheaper/easier solution than getting McAfee to work on an Exchange server. Worst software ever.

The only way you get away with saying such things is that likely so many here are new enough to IT that they didn't administer a server while McAfee owned McAfee to be able to form an opinion, or they see an AC with unsubstantiated opinion stated as fact and ignore it, as 99% of all slashdot comments are unsubstantiated opinion stated as fact, so everyone else just ignored you.

For his next trick...

[bistromath007]

He should legally change his name to Carmen Sandiego.

Such a wonderful person

[djl4570]

I don't give a flying fuck what he says. I want to know the facts, not the accusations and spin.
What really happened in Belize?
Did he kill anyone?
If yes, wouldn't it be righteous to allow the authorities to properly investigate the circumstances of the homicide?
My sense is that Slashdot has been in the tank for McAfee since this started.
I want the truth and the whole story.

Re:Such a wonderful person

[Ash Vince]

Exactly! I've had a hard time finding any real details beyond hyperbole. So many people are screaming guilty and scum, but I can't find many specific details to conclude anything. Can anyone enlighten?

The only details anyone apart from him knows is that his neighbour was shot dead. McAfee seems to believe that his neighbour was killed by a government death squad that was looking for him but got the wrong house so refused to even talk to the police investigating the shooting. The police view hiding from them as suspicious (lol, name a police officer who wouldn't) so are becoming more and more keen to talk to him.

The only way we will ever find out anything close to the truth is if the cops catch the killer without his help and he is proved innocent or if he gets extradited back to Belize and decides to plead guilty. Neither are that likely to my mind.

Re:Such a wonderful person

[Vintermann]

Did he kill anyone?

That's the important question. And I got to say, the more I hear of his antics (dopplegangers changing their name to his?) and novelty drug habits, the less inclined I am to give him the benefit of doubt on this one.

Re:Such a wonderful person

[rudy_wayne]

Did he kill anyone?

That's the important question. And I got to say, the more I hear of his antics (dopplegangers changing their name to his?) and novelty drug habits, the less inclined I am to give him the benefit of doubt on this one.

It will soon be revealed that he killed Hans Reiser's wife.

Re:Such a wonderful person

[gutnor]

He is a dodgy man living in a dodgy country in latina america. You need to take any news from either the government or McAfee with a spoonful of salt.

Re:Such a wonderful person

[eric_herm]

Or rather, that he was hans Reiser wife who faked her own death in order to prevent reiserfs4 to be integrated upstream, paid as a ex russian secret agent by a unnamed super villain ( take your pick between Google, Microsoft, Apple or anything, we will explain for the next conspiracy that they are all the same company in the end )

Re:Such a wonderful person

[Anonymous Coward]

So, with a government death squad supposedly after him he got a lookalike who he's known for 30 years and who changed his name to John McAfee to hand hmself in? Did he explain the death squad bit first? Did his chosen victim believe any of it and if so then why participate - just because he wants to give his life to save the real McAffee? The whole thing is ludicrously far fetched. The sort of government who send death squads are not exactly likely to be gently with a false McAfee who deliberately aided and abetted the real one, even assuming the death squad didn't shoot him on sight.

Overall I'd say 99% chance that McAfee is guilty as hell (and probably lost touch with reality too), 1% innocent but completely lost touch with reality.

Re:Such a wonderful person

[Muad'Dave]

I want to know who killed Kennedy. And a pony.

I doubt whoever killed Kennedy also killed a pony.

Re:Such a wonderful person

[TheGratefulNet]

in latina america

I knew about the pussification of america, but I didn't know that it went that far.

Re:Such a wonderful person

[Tablizer]

ludicrously far fetched. The sort of government who send death squads are not exactly likely to be gently with a false McAfee...who deliberately aided and abetted

You are thinking like the middle class. Try it like this: "I'll give you 5 million if you pretend to be me and get the crap beat out of you for a year."

I suspect roughly 1/4 the population would go for such a deal.

Re:Such a wonderful person

[omfglearntoplay]

So do you mean he should think like a down and out lower class person desperate for money to survive or a rich bastard that can use money to buy people?

Re:Such a wonderful person

[AK Marc]

The police want the truth too. He's wanted for questioning. He lived next door to someone who was murdered. He is a suspect until cleared, and maybe a material witness. The police have wanted nothing but to check with him about those things. He's done nothing but run and give excuses why he's running. If he weren't a criminal, why didn't he go to the US or UK embassies and invite the authorities in for questioning? The closest I could get to an answer to that is that he's a US tax evader, so, being a criminal facing lots of US jail time, he was avoiding anywhere with an extradition treaty with the US, until he was caught in Guatemala, which does extradite, and he's on his way to Miami now (or is in San Fran, or whatever). Turns out everyone avoiding capture ends up in the US eventually. They aren't avoiding the local charge, they are avoiding getting sent to the US.

But the US almost always gets them in the end. The Republicans complain about the New World Order, but were instrumental in putting it in place. The difference is that rather than submitting to a world government, the US has asserted itself to be the world government. But it's a New World Order none the less.

Re:Such a wonderful person

[AK Marc]

McAfee is a drug dealer living in Belize because the committed fraud and tax evasion in the US and fled. He had guard dogs that bit people off his property. His neighbor put out poison on his own property to defend himself from McAfee's violent dogs. The dogs ate the poison, and returned home, sick. McAfee confronted his neighbor, who defended his actions, after all, if McAfee had properly restrained his dogs, they'd be alive. McAfee killed his neighbor (revenge for killing his dogs). He then began running before the murder was even public (something only the guilty party or a fleeing witness could do, and nothing he's done is consistent with a witness). The rest is not in dispute.

Just because the truth can't be substantiated to your personal standard doesn't mean it isn't true.

Re:Such a wonderful person

[smugfunt]

The rest is not in dispute.

This whole post is false or inaccurate and/or pure speculation.
Or are you claiming some inside info not available to the rest of us?

"I'm so clever..."

[mystyc]

Why is it that people who have evaded authorities find it irresistible to gloat about how "clever" they are to have outwitted cops. I get it, maybe eventually talk about it in an autobiography, but he may technically still be evading said authorities. He might as well say, "nanna nanna booboo, come and get me!".

Re:"I'm so clever..."

[Infernal Device]

Why is it that people who have evaded authorities find it irresistible to gloat about how "clever" they are to have outwitted cops. I get it, maybe eventually talk about it in an autobiography, but he may technically still be evading said authorities. He might as well say, "nanna nanna booboo, come and get me!".

He's monologuing. That's the downfall of every evil villain.

In this case, he's probably more of a rich, paranoid nutbag than anything. Innocent until proven guilty and all that, but he's not helping his case any and I'm not going to vouch for the authorities in Belize, either.

Delusional

[Snjit]

This has gone beyond news to just soap opera drama that belongs on a bad trash news site, not ./

I don't expect top notch, confirmed journalism from any internet news site but this one is pure fantasy on the part of McAfee. Stop feeding this delusional, drug addled news whore. He hasn't done anything for technology since selling his business. Stop letting these "news" stories through to the front page.

Thanks

Re:Hey, John

[Jeremiah Cornelius]

I could do the EXACT same thing.

Man,
I'M ZAPHOD BEEBLEBROX!!

Re:Disappointed

[fnj]

Think how much better off if the entire Congress was behind bars, together with the President and all his cabinet, and most of the top corporate officers. Hey, it's a start.

Re:Disappointed

[mseeger]

You'd lock him up based on some sketchy details you read about online. I think the world would be a much safer place without that kind of gross injustice.

No, i would lock him up for constituting a flight risk while being involved in a murder case. If the things happened in the US as they happened in Belize, don't you think he would be in custody now (or having paid at least so much bail to make his appearance in trial likely). He takes pride in escaping the police of the country he decided to live in.

Re:DON'T CARE

[wmbetts]

If I have to read about an attention whore I'd prefer them to be bat shit crazy. It makes the stories more interesting.

GTFO

[slashmydots]

I am going to be beyond pissed if the US doesn't extradite his dumb ass straight back to Belize.

Re:GTFO

[phantomfive]

Apparently if Belize wants that, all they have to do is file a warrant for his arrest. They didn't do that, which is why Guatemala let him go. I have no idea why Belize didn't file a warrant for his arrest. Most likely McAfee isn't as interesting as he thinks to the Belize government.

Re:GTFO

[Algae_94]

Possibly because Belize doesn't have enough evidence to bother filing a warrant. If they were able to talk to him, they might have gotten the information they needed, but they didn't get to talk to him.

Re:GTFO

[mu51c10rd]

It was odd to me as well. We do have an extradition treaty with Belize, so they could charge him and request him back. I'd like to see how he plans on dodging the FBI or Marshall's service.

I'll wait for the movie

[sl4shd0rk]

or book... you do realize that's where all this publicity has been leading right?

Re:Hey, John

[plover]

All I could think of was "cool story, bro."

Re:Disappointed

[afidel]

trust the police to do their jobs without prejudice or malice. In some parts of the world, that's already the case.

What part of the world would that be in, because I haven't heard of anyone perfecting AI and implanting it in robots yet. One of the most important lessons I learned in high school was that everyone has bias, it's part of the human condition. Most law enforcement officers have a bias towards catching the criminal and so they will color their view of the evidence to point towards their most likely suspect, most don't even realize they are doing it.